Post by Oshin on May 27, 2004 13:57:50 GMT -5
A Little More Fairy Dust... Please!!
a.k.a.: The Fairy Doctor
© by Mary Baxter St.Clair
In "A Little More Fairy Dust," Mary employed the same character as "In My Secret Garden", who has since stumbled off her tightrope, to express her own recovery from an accident she had when she slipped going down the spiral staircase to her studio. While tumbling down she knocked over a jar of "Fairy Dust" (which she keeps on hand for a variety of uses, including "blessings" of special guests). After arriving at the hospital, where she was given x-rays only to find that she had miraculously escaped serious injury, the doctor noticed that Mary was covered with a mysterious, sparkling dust. Upon receiving an answer about the nature of this unusual substance covering his patient, the amused doctor said, "Well, next time you decide to go flying, try using a, little more fairy dust...please!"
In both of these paintings, you will notice two mice, a ladybug and a dragonfly; characters who will all surely appear again in the third painting in this series (which may, perhaps, depict our young heroine flying away with her newly mended wing). The ladybug represents Jessica's mother, Valerie--the Artists' oldest daughter-- who's nickname when she was a child was "Ladybug." This is why a ladybug often appears in paintings that use Jessica as a model; as in real life, Valerie is diligently watching over her daughter. The dragonfly with it's gossamer wings represents Mary herself, who as an adult and an artist has taken over the role of the magical beings who transported her to enchanted lands as a child.
Finally, the mice were inspired by two intrepid field mice who for a time raised comedy and havoc in the Baxter-St.Clair household in Hawaii. She named the cross-eyed mouse "Mr. Corrigan," after the famous "Wrong-way Corrigan," because whenever startled in the kitchen at night he either ran in circles or, in his confusion, directly at whomever it was he was trying to avoid. "Mrs. Gillespie" was named after Dizzy Gillespie because she appeared to be cross-eyed and had similar problems, including trying to hide in the garbage disposal on several occasions. (The two mice were eventually caught and released in a nearby field.)
